Medina VFW is helping to bring ‘Moving Wall’ to area

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 17 March 2014 at 12:00 am

Pembroke will host the memorial from June 11-15

Photo by Tom Rivers – Members of the Medina VFW and the Ladies Auxiliary are helping to bring “The Moving Wall” to Pembroke on June 11 – 15. Several veterans’ organizations in Western New York are helping with the project, giving donations and manpower. Pictured outside the Medina VFW on East Center Street include, from left: VFW member Kim Lockwood, VFW Ladies Auxiliary President Cindy Harris, Ladies Auxiliary Secretary Donna Little and Mike Little, VFW senior vice commander.

MEDINA – When the call went out in the veterans’ community about bringing “The Moving Wall” to Pembroke, the Medina VFW was quick to answer.

The VFW gave $1,000 to the effort and the Ladies Auxiliary also agreed to give $1,000. The wall, a memorial to 58,000 Americans killed in the Vietnam War, will be at the Pembroke Town Park from June 11 to 15.

“We want people to pay their respects to the guys,” said Mike Little, the senior vice commander for the VFW in Medina.

Local veterans will provide an honor guard for the memorial, which stretches about 200 feet. The Moving Wall has been in Genesee County before, in 1996 and 2010. The memorial typically spends about a week at each location and moves around the country.

Little has seen it before, and he wanted it to return to the area. The Oakfield-Alabama American Legion is taking the lead on bringing the wall back to Western New York.

To help raise money for the project, the Medina VFW Ladies Auxiliary this Saturday will host a “Spring Fling Vendor Faire” from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The VFW at 216 East Center St. will have about 20 vendors inside and the Ladies Auxiliary will be serving food.

Cindy Harris, the Ladies Auxiliary president, said this is the latest fundraiser planned by the group to meet its $1,000 goal for The Wall.

“It won’t be that far away,” she said about the memorial. “Pembroke is right down the road.”

VFW member Kim Lockwood has connected with many of the vendors and lined up donations for a Chinese auction on Saturday. She has seen The Wall in Washington, D.C.  She wants other people to experience the memorial, and pay their respects to the veterans.

“It’s so long,” she said about The Wall. “It goes on forever.”